Home
by Cotton Candy Mareep
Summary: Why was she here? Why had she ever left in the first place? And most importantly...What if nobody else wanted her back? /An interpretation of Nami's return to Forget-Me-Not Valley after years of traveling. [Day 5: Warmth]


**A/N: And here it is, for the "Warmth" prompt, a tribute to two of some of my favorite Harvest Moon marriage candidates – Nami and Gustafa. Which is pretty funny, because I didn't marry either one of them in the game AWL/AnWL. Went for the farmers Celia and Marlin instead (Celia because she was a sweetie and a perfect match for my farmer character, with her love of plants and farming and all, and Marlin because in my head Celia was already married to Jack, so I didn't want him to be lonely without her). So yeah, this is my own little interpretation on Nami's emotional return to Forget-Me-Not Valley after having been away for years. Enjoy!**

 **P.S. - The weird song lyrics included in this oneshot are actually taken from HM: Another Wonderful Life itself: Gustafa recites these lyrics if you choose to marry him in the game. I just didn't have enough time before the posting deadline to write my own little song for him, haha.**

 **-CCM**

* * *

 _Home_

She didn't know what she was doing.

The moon was large and cast an eerie sort of silvery glow on the valley, making the cobblestone pavement under her feet seem to shine; it was probably nearly full, the redhead thought fleetingly. And then she paused.

Why was she here?

Everything around her had been so familiar at one point; she had lived there long enough to even convince the entire valley that she would stay there for good. Standing there on the middle of the road, staring at the inn and the bar and the small collection of houses that lined the street, all those faint memories came flooding back to her in full force, as though she hadn't just been gone for years on end. A strange feeling prickled in her chest, like some mixture of sadness and happiness and frustration all balled up into one, indistinguishable emotion.

Why had she ever left in the first place?

Because... she was a traveler, she answered herself. A wanderer, and she had been all her life. The wanderlust tugged at her heart, pulled her to new places, ensured that she never settled down in one town or village for too long. And so, when she stepped foot in that little valley for the first time, she knew right from the start that it couldn't last.

Except she did stay there. Much, much longer than she had ever intended to. And the longer she did, the greater that little tug on her heart was, fighting for dominance over the warm feelings that had formed in her every time she ate Ruby's spicy home cooking or helped Tim out at the inn, every time she argued with Rock over him playing his music too loud or watched Jack's farm animals out in the pasture as he cheerfully pointed out each of their names.

Every time she listened to Gustafa play his guitar, his fingers flying gracefully over the strings to produce simple yet stunning melodies that left her speechless...

...Every time she sat on the beach and watched the stars as they gradually appeared up above in the fading light of the evening, one by one, until an entire dusting of them were visible in the darkened night sky above the valley.

But that one event, their wedding, changed everything for her; it was the final little push that sent her packing, without so much as a single goodbye. And more a few regrets that she'd tried to cover up.

When she left, it was like she left a small piece of her own soul behind.

...What if nobody else wanted her back?

She had abandoned them willingly, after all. She almost expected them to be cold toward her; she probably deserved it. Would Tim and Ruby still let her stay at the inn like they used to? And Jack... he was married, now. He had a wife, and probably a kid by now, too, as much as it pained her to admit it, despite her attempts to cover up her feelings for him, and everyone else she cared about.

Would anyone even _care_ that she had come back? Would they acknowledge her at all, or simply give her the cold shoulder, as she had done to them so many times in the past?

Regardless, none of that mattered now. Whether they liked it or not, she was back.

Sighing, Nami looked from side to side, debating where to go first. Should she go to the inn right away, or stop by the bar first and see who might be there?

Finally, her fists clenching at her sides in resignation for what was to come, the red-haired young woman stepped forward toward the painfully familiar front door of the Inner Inn. She had to face up to what she had done, accept the past and move on, and now was a better time than ever.

* * *

The Inner Inn was bright inside, and comfortingly warm after her long, cold journey through the mountains, and the fragrant, exotic aroma of curry and spices filled the air. Nami had forgotten how much she truly missed the smell of Ruby's cooking.

Three people stood inside the lobby, and the redhead took a deep breath as shut the door behind her and recognized each of them; three of the people she wanted to see the most, and at the same time, the least.

She stopped in her tracks, and wondered whether she should have gone to the Blue Bar first, after all.

It was Rock who noticed her first, still standing at the door in complete silence, contemplating what to do, what to say. Tim and Ruby continued on with their conversation, oblivious to the girl that stood quietly observing them, but Rock had frozen mid-sentence, his eyes widening as they landed on her. She could see his lips forming a silent question, and she felt rooted to the spot.

" _Nami_!"

Ecstatically, the blond-haired young man sprung forward and flung his arms around the redhead, sloshing and spilling the drink that he held in his hand in the process. He then quickly pulled away to get a good look at her face, still holding on to her.

"What are you doing here?"

Tim and Ruby turned to see what the sudden commotion was, and they each froze in mutual shock at the sight before them, their son clinging to the very woman they likely thought they would never see again.

"...Nami?"

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, distorted as though they were all underwater.

They were mad at her, Nami was sure of it. Angry and hurt by her decision to leave them, just as they were beginning to feel a bond. She hadn't even given them a warning, just blew away on the wind one night without a word. No note. Not even a message later on; nothing. Maybe Tim would even tell her to move on, to go back where she had come from. They would -

"Welcome back, Nami!" To her utter shock, she felt Tim join in on the hug that Rock had started, his large arms surrounding them both. "It's so great to see you; I almost can't believe it!"

"Nami, we missed you," Ruby said, and Nami could swear she saw a tear forming in the corner of the older woman's eye as she too wrapped her enveloped the lithe redhead in an enormous hug. And as much as she hated physical contact with other people, Nami didn't make any attempt to push her away.

She couldn't remember the last time she had ever by hugged by anyone.

"We didn't think we would ever see you again," Ruby admitted as the Inner Inn trio stepped back to give her some space. "You just left us without a trace. But... this is such a wonderful surprise!"

Beside his wife, Tim nodded and gestured up the set of stairs behind them, adding, "Your room is just as you left it. This is your home, remember!"

Home...

"So..." she spoke up tentatively, still overwhelmed by the gracious welcome she had never planned on, "You're not... mad?"

Tim waved the question off with a grin, as though the thought of being mad at this young woman who had just entered their inn were inconceivable to him. "Of course not. We understand, Nami. We were travelers like yourself once, too."

The young woman looked over at Ruby again, who was positively beaming despite the tears in her eyes. "Nami... We're a family, here at the Inner Inn. And that includes you. You're... like a daughter to us, Nami. The daughter we never had."

Rock clapped Nami on the back unexpectedly, winking at her. "Yup... you're one of us now, and don't you forget it."

* * *

In the fields behind the Inner Inn, Nami was awestruck by the beauty of the night. She had been outside on many, many nights like this during her travels, nights with clearer skies and more visible stars than what she was looking at now, but she still didn't think any one of them could possibly compare to this.

"Hey... Nami?"

The sudden voice calling her name startled her. She had left the inn in much higher spirits, and was now taking a walk around the valley, hoping to see everything that she had missed for so long, call back the memories of the places that had once been her peace and comfort.

However, she hadn't actually expected to see anyone else outside, not this late at night.

"Nami!"

"Gustafa..." Nami's stomach clenched; although her reunion with the Inner Inn family had gone well, much better than she ever expected, she wasn't sure whether she was ready to see _him_ , of all people, just yet.

And yet, there he was, seated beneath the tree right next to his little yurt like always, his trusty guitar perched on his lap and familiar green pointed hat adorned with a flower perched atop his head. The very sight nearly sent Nami's mind reeling.

"You came back..." Gustafa lifted the dark glasses from his face and stared at her, his bearded face reflecting the happiest sort of wonder that she had ever seen.

"Yeah, I did," she acknowledged.

"Why?"

 _Why_ … The directness of his inquiry took her by surprise. Now that was the question, wasn't it?

"I…" She stumbled over her words, unsure of what to say. Why _did_ she come back? How could she explain the pull that drew her here, even stronger than the wanderlust deep in her heart; the feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that beckoned her back toward Forget-Me-Not Valley, which words could not accurately describe?

"I just... missed Ruby's cooking," she said. But she wasn't fooling anyone with that half-truth.

"That's not the real reason," Gustafa countered, and Nami sighed, searching her mind for a better answer.

"…This is my home now," she settled on simply.

The hippie smiled at her, though it was difficult to see it in the shade cast by the brim of his enormous hat. She couldn't even see his eyes behind his glasses. "My little heroine..."

"Don't call me that," she snapped, and instantly regretted it.

"...I missed you," he admitted slowly, treading carefully over his own words, mulling them over in his head before speaking. "Ever since you left... I always wondered, where you might be... And I never stopped."

Nami closed her eyes. She didn't need to hear this... she already had enough on her plate to worry about. Enough guilt eating at her over leaving Tim and Ruby and Rock...

Gustafa seemed to sense the overbearing mess of emotions that Nami was feeling; though she had always been distant, cold and aloof as a regal queen looking down over her subjects, she couldn't hide anything as significant as _this_. Not from him.

The dark clouds that had been gathered at the edge of the valley all evening had finally moved in directly overhead. A few pristine white snowflakes began their fall to earth, swirling down toward the pair on the breeze.

Gustafa opened his mouth like he had more to say, or perhaps more questions to ask, but instead he gestured for Nami to sit down beside him. Tentatively obliging his wordless request, she settled down underneath the tree at Gustafa's other side, and the hippie lifted his guitar and began to strum, humming to himself a little tune. One that Nami recognized.

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree trunk, feeling the rough bark against her back, and in the darkness beneath her eyelids, she saw a similar situation play out before her, under very different circumstances. It was a memory, one from many years prior.

With her eyes closed, Nami felt the cold snowflakes settling against her skin be replaced by the warmth of golden sunlight filtering through the branches of the now leaf-laden tree. A breeze, dampened with the slightly salty scent of the sea, ruffled her ruby-colored hair, and beside her, Gustafa played his guitar, fingers plucking at the strings to produce that simple little melody.

 _There was a miraculous apple, that grew on a tree_

 _And if you ate it, you'd get wishes three._

 _It was three days later, that a dwarf happened by_

 _He thought of the girl he loved, she was the apple of his eye._

… _The dwarf turned into the girl that he loved so._

 _He looked like her, dressed like her, and even smelled like her;_

 _He became the girl he loved…_

 _But then the girl, his beloved dove, came to visit, wouldn't you bet?_

 _And the two of 'em, their eyes met…_

 _That miraculous fruit fell out, as he stood with his mouth agape,_

 _And he turned back to his normal shape._

Despite herself, Nami found herself singing along softly.

 _Did the dwarf and girl ever fall in love?_

 _Did he win the hand of his little dove?_

It was such an odd little song, but Nami could feel there was a deeper meaning behind it. It often seemed to her that there was a deeper meaning behind everything that Gustafa said.

"You remembered!"

"Huh?" Nami was shaken out of her memories by the sound of his voice, and realized that Gustafa had stopped strumming his guitar to look at her. Yes, it was winter, not summer, and nighttime, and she had just returned to Forget-Me-Not Valley after years of traveling…

"The song. You remembered it. The last lines, even."

"Uh, yeah… I did…" Nami admitted hesitantly, hiding her embarrassment at the fact that Gustafa had caught her singing along. "It's a really weird song, and it doesn't make that much sense, honestly... I remember when you were working on it, and asked me what I thought."

She shrugged. "Who wouldn't remember it?"

Gustafa didn't seem to hear her; he appeared lost in his own thoughts for a moment. "After all this time…"

He stared off at the sky, watching the snowflakes that danced down from the thick grey clouds above, beyond the bare branches of the tree.

"But is that really how it ends?" Nami asked; this time it was her turn to startle Gustafa out of his reverie. "The song? The dwarf and the dove… Do they end up together?"

Gustafa laughed. A hearty, genuine laugh. "You'll have to answer that one for yourself."

"But _you_ wrote it…" Nami grumbled. Gustafa merely chuckled again.

"Ah, but a song is always left up to the listener's interpretation, not the writer's. I can't tell you what to think."

"If you say so…" Gustafa watched her expectantly, but Nami wasn't so sure whether she was ready to answer the question posed in his song. Though perhaps, someday, they would find out.

"...Where did you go?" He finally asked, breaking the moment of peaceful silence between them.

"A lot of places…" she muttered vaguely. The memories of her travels all seemed to blur together in her mind. Had she ever really left the valley? "I was the weather girl in Flowerbud Village for a time…"

"A weather girl, huh?" Gustafa smiled at her. "Who woulda thought?"

She sat in silence for a moment, thinking, watching him turn away and focus again on the guitar in his hands... holding it lovingly, tenderly adjusting the strings... Everything he did seemed to be filled with that same earnest love...

"I-I missed you, too," she blurted, an impulsive action that was very unlike her, and he turned to face her again as she struggled with her words.

"You know... I... would kiss you right now," the red-haired young woman admitted, hesitating, "...But I'm afraid you might poke my eye out with that huge pointy nose of yours."

Gustafa laughed out loud good-naturedly, again surprising her. He had such a nice, happy-sounding laugh, as though whatever had caused it was the most amusing thing he had ever heard. Nami didn't think she had ever seen him offended by anything said to him in her life, even after all the times she pushed him away and closed herself off to him, shutting her feelings deep inside.

She couldn't help but smile along with him as she stood up to leave, her short red hair now flecked with the thick white snowflakes that had been steadily falling from the sky. It was getting very late, and she still had a lot of catching up to do in the valley.

"Hey… Nami?"

Nami turned to face the hat-wearing hippie once more. He reached into the rucksack slung on his back and pulled out a rounded, bright red object, which he held in his palm for a few moments before handing over to her.

She stared at it. It was an apple, the most perfect, unblemished apple she had ever seen.

"You take care of yourself, alright?"

The redhead smiled. She felt a growing warmth deep in her chest, a glowing spark that ignited in her heart.

"You too, Gustafa."

If home was truly where the heart is, then Forget-Me-Not Valley was home to Nami.


End file.
